How To Chainsaw Like a Boss. This Could Save Your Life.

hey there welcome to farm craft in a previous video i went through how to cut down a tree showing you the three things that you need on your stump um that video did really well but there's a lot more to discuss and i want to go through some of that in this video this video is sponsored by an awesome do-it-yourself home security system simply safe more on that later we're going to talk about some higher level cutting techniques both on felling trees trimming limbs how to cut up the tree once it's down on the ground and some very common practices that are very widely used that are actually not safe there is a lot to know when operating a chainsaw and i'm always learning new things we're going to cover a lot in this video even if like me you've been using a chainsaw for decades i'm probably going to touch on some things that maybe you hadn't considered before so if you want to learn something about chainsaws you want to up your chainsawing game watch this video i think you're going to find it interesting i have to throw a disclaimer in here there is way too much to know about tree felling about chainsaw safety for me to go through everything in a couple of videos it's up to you to educate yourself and make sure what you're doing is safe for you be careful out there i do a lot of different things a lot of dangerous things and i think chainsaws and tree work are probably the most dangerous thing i do so first step in cutting down a tree is gauging the lean which way does that tree want to fall i can be a tree hugger at times but even when you want to cut down a tree you got to be a tree hugger it it's actually pretty hard to gauge exactly the direction that it's leaning just by standing back and looking at it but when you come right up to it have your chest on it and you look up it becomes pretty obvious so i can see that this tree is is leaning that way yeah it wants to go that way kind of right towards me where i am now now fortunately for me there's nothing in that direction that i'm worried about so i can drop it that way and that's exactly what i'm going to do if there was something there i wanted to avoid i'd be thinking about roping it and pulling it back this way we're not going to cover roping in this video i might do another video on that later if you guys want to see that definitely give this video a thumbs up and comment below let me know that you guys want to see it another technique that can be useful is if you had limbs that were going that way you could take those limbs off to change the weight of the tree so that it would dominate in that direction where you want it to go this tree doesn't really have any big limbs hanging off in that direction but that can be helpful we'll go through how to cut off a limb later so we're set up to take this tree down now i'm going to do something different on this what i typically do is called a conventional wedge you come straight in and then you take a a wedge cut that way you know people have different terminologies for this some people call it a wedge some people call it a notch you know you're taking a wedge out of the tree or cutting a notch into the tree whatever i think the professionals call this a face cut to me that sounds like a trip to the er you're cutting a wedge out of the tree right here a humboldt wedge is commonly used by the professionals it's flat here and the angle is here and i don't usually do those i'm going to do one on this tree so that we can kind of look at that here i'm putting on my cut resistant chaps wearing chaps is a great idea the problem is i'd say the majority of homeowner chainsaw users don't even own chaps you want to be safe absolutely get some cut resistant chaps go ahead and pay the money most of the injuries on a chainsaw happen to your legs it would also be a good idea to wear some steel-toed boots this way you know if something slips and the chain comes and hits my legs it's not going to cut me these are going to resist that helmet ear protection face protection all good ideas remember what i said about the felling line this line on the saw is what you want to use to determine where this tree is going to go so i'm going to be going like that looking at this line and cutting a horizontal cut um [Music] [Music] all right so i am about a third of the way through the tree and it's pointing where i want it to go this line right here now for a conventional i would go ahead and make my notch like this but for a hum bolt which is what we're going to do i'm gonna make my notch down [Music] here now you can see why i don't typically do a humboldt notch i find them much harder to get your wedge right that is a horrible wedge and it's much harder to revise when you're like this um for me at least so now look over here i totally missed this side i am way off i came up into that ah you know now i've got to fix this notch um this is going to be a little bit a little bit goofy but i should be able to do it i need to come down further and come up and connect with that corner so let's see if i can manage that [Music] [Music] actually looking at this wedge i am not nearly steep enough um this wedge should be more like that and it's so hard to revise this i think i'm highlighting why i do a conventional notch and that's what i would recommend for people that aren't as familiar with this now there's one more way to do it and that is called an open face notch and that's where you angle it both ways and that will open up my my notch so that the tree can fall most of the way before it hits and the the hinge breaks off so uh that would be another option here is to take that up all right so why is a humboldt more why is it a superior notch well it leaves a a squared off log so if i was using this for lumber i don't have part of my log missing because i put a notch in it so you know i'm going to do a back cut slightly above that corner a couple inches straight across the back there and when that tree starts falling this is immediately going to be down lower than the hinge you're going to have in my opinion less chance of of kicking back off of the stump now i've read uh on some sites they say the exact opposite i'm not quite sure i understand why they think it's going to kick back more than a conventional notch just in my opinion they're much harder to cut and wouldn't recommend it for the lay person before we cut this something else i want to talk about here remember this is our hinge wood that's supposed to be about 10 of the tree now it's going to vary depending on the species and the state of the tree but about 10 percent of that width so if you've got a 20 inch tree you want a 2 inch hinge or thereabouts the hinge is your control don't cut the hinge off that's that's really what's keeping that tree going where you want it to go now it's a common practice uh and in a wrong practice people want to cut a back cut at an angle and i think they think because they're coming up here it makes the tree less likely to come back that way but that is incorrect that's not true i would challenge anyone who thinks that that is the proper way to cut to find a website or a link from from a reputable source that recommends a cut like that i've looked at you know steel husqvarna forestry websites the osha website they all do a horizontal back cut cutting like this i guess people think because it's coming vertical it's somehow going to keep the tree on that side it's not if the tree is coming back this way this is not going to stop it in fact you know a cut here with a wedge in it is going to do the same thing it's it's going to resist that tree coming back in this direction but when you come like this the osha website actually says it makes barber chair more likely what i see here if you've got a horizontal back cut and the tree is trying to come this way and these close and hit now your tree's leaning here and your hinge is in tension here and it's vertical tension which is where wood is strong if you're like this and that tree comes and it hits well now you're doing you're doing that so now your your hinge has actually got a sideways force on it and it's more likely to break off and if it breaks off the tree's going that way so so this cut actually makes the tree more likely to fail you have the same sideways force on the stump now and wood is weakest in splitting so the stump can actually split out and then you have nothing holding your tree from falling back in that direction if you disagree certainly leave comments many many people do that i think they're wrong you can do that and get away with it especially you know i could do that right here because the tree's leaning that way it's it would work the other thing i would argue on that is it's much harder to start at an angle and hit the spot you want to hit you know actually you'd want to hit like two inches above so you'd want to stop right here it's very hard to get that right but horizontal it's much easier to hit that point if your angle is a little off you're going to end up you know you'll be down in here and then you end up below your your notch or your you end up too high or you end up not parallel because now you've got an angle here and an angle here it's hard to juggle all that keep your back cut horizontal it's safer it's the way you're supposed to do it the other thing i wanted to say is wedges wedges in the back cut are obviously used all the time and a good idea you know you can start your back cut in you can pound a couple of wedges that ensures that the tree won't try to come and close your back cut but if your tree is leaning this way and you're trying to push it over with wedges every time you slam that wedge in there you're generating upward pressure that is also generating upward force on your hinge and if you overdo the wedges it is possible to make your hinge fracture and break off and that's a disaster because then that tree is going wherever it wants let's get this tree down [Music] up [Music] [Music] [Music] i don't think my gopro liked that so much there it is still recording remember when i said my wedge wasn't big enough well you can actually see when the wedge closes and the hinge breaks off the tree is still well above the ground i proceeded with dropping the tree even though the wedge wasn't perfect because it's out in the open it's not going to hit anything and i'm cutting it in the direction that it's leaning basically it's an easy tree to drop and very forgiving if it was more complicated i would have fixed that wedge so that went pretty well the hinge is actually a little less than it really was i kept cutting when i saw the tree start falling that reduces the amount of this kind of splintering and stuff that you get in it the wedge is now in the stump and the log is pretty square now i'm not going to use this for wood obviously because this is a dying ash tree but you can see how this technique would be more useful if cutting the trees for lumber so when cutting a tree you want to have a an escape route when that tree starts to go you need to know where you're going to go and the answer is it's 45 degrees in that direction this is the is the safest place for you to be when trees are falling what tends to happen if something goes wrong is the tree can buck straight back off of the back of the stump so you don't want to be here and get hit by that or it can hit the ground and come sideways in either direction so you don't want to be here [Music] so the thing to do is cut once the tree starts going you need to have a path in that direction for you to escape and you know out here in the open like this you still want to do that but it's not so crucial because you know that tree is not going to hit anything and it's much more predictable but for a lay person absolutely get away from the tree go that direction if you're on this side then it would be 45 this way if you're in the woods make absolutely sure before you start cutting that you've got an escape route because [Music] oftentimes there's brush piles and there's things in the way and i will actually cut a little path for me to run along especially if this tree is going to hit something like another tree that may be dead you know hang up on a limb or something you want to get away from that hey so i'm excited to tell you guys about simply safe this is a essentially do-it-yourself home security system it's mailed right to your door super easy to install totally customizable they've got all sorts of peripherals anything that you would want in your security system and right now they're having their holiday deals you can save 40 or more so i'm going to leave a link here check that out if you're interested in home security you've got to check out simply safe i can tell you that people have been trying to get me to do sponsored videos on this channel for a long time and i'm constantly saying no because i don't like their product i don't believe in their product in fact this is the first sponsored video i've done on this channel and there's a reason for that because i really do like simply safe and i'm going to install it in my home it's a really cool system let me show it to you 24 7 monitoring by professionals simply safe has won many awards for their systems the monitoring is really quite reasonably priced it starts at like 50 cents a day but even if you choose not to do the monitoring it still is an awesome system that connects to your phone and keeps you alerted as to what's going on at your house it has glass break sensors motion sensors that are super easy to install door and window entry sensors you can see that the molding on my old house is it makes it kind of difficult to install they're not even lined up and it works just fine very forgiving so how easy it is is certainly a big part of why i like it but it's got a bunch of other peripherals that most security systems that i've seen don't have like this right here is a freeze sensor you can monitor the temperature of this from your cell phone so if you've got a pipe or something that's prone to freezing put this near it and it's going to let you know before your pipe actually freezes now this here is one that i really like and i'm going to get some more of these this is a water sensor if this gets wet it's going to alert you on your phone so i'm keeping this under my washing machine so if that ever starts to drip water it's going to tell me before this place is a total mess this is an automatic door lock that you can control with your phone i had a just a thumb turn deadbolt here and this has adapters to fit all the common types of deadbolts basically you take this off you screw on a plate that they give with the same screws that came with this and then this just pops right on there and now i can open and close that door with my phone so yeah let me show you this there's my wife kissing a cow we open simply safe and there's the lock right there you can see the bolt is locked i hit unlock [Music] and it unlocks and of course i can do that at any time from anywhere with my phone uh but it's cool because i have a keyless entry now let's lock it back up how cool is that they've even got a video doorbell that i'm planning on installing they've got carbon monoxide detectors smoke detectors and check out this exterior security camera they have wide field of view high definition color video digital zoom and even a spotlight for color video at night like everything in the system it's wireless and this even has an easily rechargeable internal battery you just click it into place put the top back on and like everything in the system its installation is super easy you just screw the base down put on the magnetic dome the camera is held in place by the magnet which also allows you to adjust its position as you can see i live in the middle of nowhere and home security is pretty important to me so a system like simply safe is absolutely perfect it's just what i'm looking for and i wouldn't be sponsoring them with the video unless i really believed in it so if you need home security this is definitely what you should do let's get back to work so in cutting up a tree once it's down you've got three things you really do you've got three things that you need to pay attention to one the forces of the limbs make sure that you don't get hurt like when you cut something make sure it's not under tension and as soon as you release it it's gonna come hit you that's the most important thing followed by don't get your chain stuck pay attention to the forces is it trying to pinch your chain or is the cut opening up and then the last one is keep your chain out of the dirt if your chain hits the dirt you're going to have to stop and sharpen it's amazing how quickly they they get dull i get it down to just the log so you've got to get all the branches and everything off of it and you have to use some common sense think about what's going on with these branches like this one it's actually above the ground so this one is hanging out typically on a tree that i've dropped i would just cut this into firewood lengths from the end what i'm doing here is using this horizontal limb that's hanging out over empty space as a demonstration of how to cut a limb off of a standing tree in other words if i wanted to change the weight distribution of the tree or if i'm just pruning the tree or sometimes on a dropped tree the limb is just too long or too high for you to reach the top of this is in tension it's being pulled and the bottom is being pushed because it's trying to bend down so if i cut through the bottom much it's going to start to pinch my blade contrast that with this branch which is being pushed into the ground the bottom would be in tension and the top in compression so if you cut this from the top it's going to pinch your chain now i have a limb that's just hanging out there just like a limb would be if it was on a tree now if i want to take this limb off and i don't want my saw to pinch i want to cut from the top but if i just cut from the top that limb at some point is going to start to break and it's going to start fracturing in here and the limbs going to swing all the way down and hang or go until it hits the ground you'll have to keep cutting and then the remainder of it will will come back so let's let's do that this is not how i would cut a limb off but let me show that to you [Music] [Music] see there it starts to splinter now if it didn't hit the ground it would have swung all the way down and be very splintered and then you have to keep cutting for it to fall that works but it kind of messes this up you know say you're not ruining this tree you just want to take that limb off there's a better way to do it now i've got a horizontal limb here and i'm going to use a hinge technique on this but it's a little different you don't want it to function like a hinge does at the stump you actually want this hinge to break off so what i'm going to do is i'm going to start cutting from the bottom i'm going to watch it and i'm going to feel for when it starts to pinch my chain but right as it starts to pinch i'm going to come out and then at that point i'm going to cut from the top what's going to happen is it's going to bend down the hinge is going to bend it's going to hit and the hinge is going to be in tension and then i'm going to cut the hinge off and you'll see that it comes off all of a sudden it does it in one piece there's no like swinging down and splintering like it did on the other side so i start cutting from the bottom and if you notice you can actually see the end of the limb move a little bit and i can start to feel the pinching on the chain so i come out then i cut directly across from where i just was on the top and then the limb really starts to move and now it's it's hitting at the bottom so i've got a hinge in the center there and i'm now going to thin that hinge out until it breaks and there it just comes off straight down in one piece this was a limb that i was cutting on a tree i'd come out a foot or so from where i want to be ultimately i would cut it off just like that and then i would put an angle cut on it like this you know assuming this is this is up now that is how i would leave that so that rain can sheet off of it and the best thing to do would be to get some end grain sealer and seal that if you're trying to preserve the tree that protects it from disease and protects insects and stuff from entering there you can cut straight through at that point because you don't have any leverage on it there's not a lot of force on that so it's not going to splinter it's not going to do anything weird so typically i will start at the top of a tree and get all the small stuff off nothing complicated here just cut it off and drag it out of the way all right so i'm just going to drag most of that junk out of the way and then i'll show you what i'm doing as i cut to prevent my chain from getting pinched and we're also going to do a cut where it gets pinched and i'm going to show you some things you can do about that this branch here i've got a break here it's broken there it's stuffed into the ground i can't really tell which way the forces are on it but it moves easily i can tell it's not under much tension so it doesn't really matter um but i'm going to watch as i cut i think it's actually supported somewhat if it's hanging out then the tension is on the top if it's stuffed into the ground then the tension is on the bottom and the bottom is going to want to open up as you cut so in that case you want to cut from the bottom up so let's see what that does [Music] so i just saw it move and and the cut was indeed widening so but not much there's not a lot of tension on it so it's safe for me to cut it if there's a lot of force you kind of want to position yourself away from it so that if it like springs back after you release it it doesn't get you now this portion is just hanging in the air that's a great time to cut into firewood lengths and you don't have to worry about your chain accidentally hitting the dirt so that one is sticking in the ground so it's kind of acting as a beam and the tension's on the bottom so i'm going to cut up from the bottom right there [Music] perfect i was wrong but started to pinch my chain get it out of there and then go from the top go from the other side [Music] now i like to get all this junk out of the way because it makes for bad pudding and just makes things a little more dangerous this y nothing's broken that goes right into the trunk so that is going to prevent that log from rolling or moving or doing anything like that both of these are firmly on the ground so i'm leaving those there and i'm going to take care of everything else so then i just have the log in this this thing is trying to fall so the tension's on the top with what i showed you earlier what would be the best way to cut this off now if i just start cutting from the top that's going to come down it's going to start to splinter if it splinters a lot it's hard to get your chainsaw to cut right so it's much better to make it pop off cleanly so how do we do that [Music] see how that making that hinge and then cutting it off it made it suddenly come off so it's a much more controlled way to take something like that down now oftentimes you'll find there's areas of the tree that don't have anything underneath them so you have to just get in the habit of looking at this and seeing the forces on that this thing would like to fall down to the ground so if i want to cut this the way to cut it is from the bottom if you cut from the bottom as you cut down it's the cut is going to open up and it's not going to pinch if you cut it from the top as it starts to sag it's going to close and it's going to grab your chain then you're going to have a problem i would tell you right now the absolute best way to cut this is to start at the top go down until it just starts to sag maybe not even that much but cut some of it because it's easier to cut with the weight of the saw and then come from the bottom that way you don't have to pull the saw up through the entire log just to that point someone not as experienced just cut this from the bottom it's perfectly fine to cut on top of the bar what you don't want to do is hit the end of the bar while the chain is spinning because it's going to throw the saw up and that's kickback now kickback is not that big of a deal you just have to be ready for it if you're really fatigued your saw is wearing you out and your arms are getting weak that's when it's dangerous and that's when you ought to take a break i'm gonna do something stupid here two things actually one i'm going to demonstrate kickback i'm going to rub my saw up and and hit the bar and i just want to show you that it's not something that you can't control if you're ready for it it's fine it's not that big of a deal if your footing is bad and you're not ready for it your arms are really tired well then the saw can get yanked out of your hand and that's when people get really hurt the other thing i'm going to do is i'm going to cut this from the top and we're going to get our chain hopelessly pinched and then we're going to see what we can do about that [Music] wow [Music] if i stopped right here and then came from the bottom that would be perfect [Music] [Applause] you're done chain is hopelessly pinched now so what can you do well there's a couple things i'm going to start out with the most basic that probably won't work you can take some wedges and you can open that saw turf back up that requires lifting up the whole tree i'm just not sure if these wedges are going to be up to that all right that actually worked i didn't expect it to so that's one option it's pretty stuck again the other option is to take another chainsaw and do a cut nearby that's proper so i could come over here and i could cut from the bottom with this little saw that would take some time but i could do that once i was all the way through this wouldn't have all that tension on it anymore and i'd probably be able to get my saw out so that's another option i think the best option for most people is my next option assuming the wedges don't work now lots of people aren't going to have a second chainsaw chainsaws are expensive but what you can have for pretty cheap is another bar and chain so if this ever happens now don't put it on backwards lift up on the bar tighten just until that chain is fully engaged in the groove right there and tighten it down and it's like i have a second chainsaw i'll do my cut properly coming from the bottom right here [Music] something else i want to show you i am not picking this up with my back i'm under here i've got my elbow against my knee and i'm levering off of my knee my back is really not doing much at all if you learn the technique of how to pick up and apply pressure without your back you're going to be much happier at the end of the day [Music] so it tried to pinch me again and see how it split there that's we're coming part way down at the top and then at the bottom it gives you that sudden fracture again and would have helped prevent that this thing was so high up in the air look at how much that cut has opened up it's a full inch and a half at the bottom but now this is no longer stuck my strategy here when you've got a log big like this and i want to cut it into little logs is to cut it into lengths that are manageable enough that i can push them and roll them and that's going to make it much easier to keep your chain out of the dirt so right now i can't roll it it's too big here i have i have a space underneath this so what i'm going to do is right here which is about in the middle we'll make two manageable sized pieces i'm going to come up so that i keep it keep the chain out of the dirt and get that cut in half and then i'm going to be able to roll these and that's going to help me again keep the chain out of the dirt so this one i'm going to cut part way on the top and then i'm going to finish on the bottom [Music] people that really don't have much experience these saw teeth dig into the log and i use those to lever against to put pressure on the cut so i'm not pushing down i'm i'm into the log and i'm just twisting just pulling up a little bit actually i've got it on full throttle and i'm varying my pressure based on how the saw is responding you don't want it running wide open with no resistance you also don't want it bogging down so you vary your pressure based on that [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sorry had a little battery failure it likes to do that but basically i cut them all the way down to ground level but i didn't go into the dirt and then i rolled it rolled it over on its side so that i can now cut the remainder you can see right here i wouldn't want to cut through that because that little bit of dirt would dull my chain but uh there's no there's no dirt over here so i can finish that cut just like i finished that one and then i'll have individual logs and a clean chain and i'm gonna go down the whole trunk doing the same thing at this point there's really nothing left on this thing to be a hazard you just you just want to cut it up into the size that you want and keep your chain out of the dirt [Music] [Music] [Applause] um [Music] stuck [Music] so [Applause] there's a couple tricks on rolling if you really want the ability to handle these things get yourself one of these this is called a cant hook a cant is a squared off piece of wood at a sawmill that's why it gets its name it's good for rotating those on the mill but it's got a hook here that can drive into your piece of wood and you can do it like this i kind of miss you want that to hit first and then it digs in and then i've got this great big lever here that makes rotating it actually pretty easy and if you have any trouble with the technique of getting it to seed into the wood you can always just take a hammer and just drive it in so this may or may not work i'm gonna cut most of the way through right here that'll give me one manageable log here this being up in the air i'm gonna i'm gonna break that there that should come down and open up this cut hopefully freeing that log and then before i do that i'm also going to cut over there so hopefully as that sags the weight is going to help loosen the two logs on the end i don't know if that made any sense but let's give it a try [Music] yeah you know there's a lot of different ways to get a a stall unstuck but having a second bar is huge you you really need one sometimes you get lucky and you can do that then when you got a bunch of junk stuffed in your chain don't use your hand just use a log [Music] uh [Music] and so on so what do you do with the stump hire someone that has a stump grinder to come grind them um you know i live on a farm stump's not a big deal what i do i cut it as low as i can try not to hit the dirt oftentimes after cutting a stump you're going to have to sharpen your chain i might let it sit there for a little while and start to rot get a little punky and then i'll just build a fire on top of it basically take most of it away it takes some time you know they have stunt rot products and things like that you can drill holes in it and try to increase the the speed with which it breaks down it's either that or stump grinder which i don't feel like paying for it's just not worth it [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah oh um [Music] finally you can't really see the rings clearly so just took a plane and then you can see them really well and count them it's like 98 or 99 years old i hate to cut it down actually but uh it's dying it's an ash tree and they're all gonna die so might as well take it down now before it's dangerous to take down now for cutting off limbs i recommend using an a pulse saw you know they make these in a manual version too they're a lot cheaper if you're going to use a ladder you better have a plan for when your ladder gets knocked out from under you because when you're when you're cutting a branch beside a ladder the branch has a tendency to swing right back to the base of that ladder and knock it out [Music] just trust me when i say ladders and chainsaws don't mix i don't even know what to say about this dude [Music] i think the only thing i would use a ladder for in tree work is to put a rope up in the tree tie the rope in position take the ladder down then start cutting the proper way to cut that limb off is like we were talking about you'd want to come up from the bottom don't let it pinch your chain but get maybe halfway through and then cut from the top and that is going to cause that branch to start to fall bind until your your bottom cut closes and then it's going to hold until it breaks off all in one piece now that's the right way to do it the wrong way to do it is going to cause the limb to fall for the the branch to start to splinter and then you're going to have to kind of fight to get through the rest of it and then the limbs going to fall off sort of towards that side so i'm going to do this one wrong so we can kind of see what happens if this guy had used this method that lim probably would have gone straight down and he would have been okay but i still wouldn't use a ladder on a tree there's two limbs here i'm gonna do the bottom one correctly and you can see it go straight down and i'm gonna do the top one just cutting from the top and you can see how much it pushes back towards the tree so there you go guys that's a no-nonsense guide to general chainsaw use a lot of things that we covered in this video i think it was long enough and you know between that and the other two chainsaw videos that i've put out there's links in the description that gives you a pretty good foundation on what you need to know to operate a chainsaw so i hope you guys learned something if you did give me a thumbs up come check me out on patreon visit my amazon store all your support is appreciated i've got a lot more content planned a lot more things on the way we'll see on the next one thanks for watching

Channel: FarmCraft101

Views: 1,908,440

Keywords: chainsaw (product category), stihl chainsaw, chainsaw chain, tree felling, tree pruning, limb pruning, limb cutting, how to use a chainsaw, how to cut with a chainsaw

Id: 4mcGl3gjvsQ

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/mks113]

I'm an "average homeowner" and I'd never attempt to take down a tree that large.

I took down a rotten 8" aspen a couple years ago. It was going to fall towards the house so I made some mental calculations and cut it high so it wouldn't fall as far. The tip hit the roof -- and the rotten thumb-sized top disintegrated on contact with no damage.

Don't rely on luck!

I do find it interesting that all his talk about bending and forces seemed obvious to me -- then I realized that I learned it all in first year engineering.